RICHARD GALLIANO: Nino Rota

Following his stellar live album of Billie Holiday and Edith Piaf tunes, French-born master accordionist Richard Galliano turns to his Italian roots in a tribute to Nino Rota, marking the great film composer’s centenary in 2011. Captivated by these sumptuous scores ever since he saw La Strada at his local cinema in Nice as a child, Galliano brings the timeless creations of Fellini and Francis Ford Coppola vividly to life in his own jazz-tinged arrangements for quintet.

With idiomatic playing from the band, especially Dave Douglas on trumpet, Rota’s melancholic themes lose none of their original romance and mystique, from The Godfather waltz (played on trombone, surprisingly, by Galliano) to the seductive opening of Amarcord. There are more upbeat and varied offerings: the soloist and his La Strada Quartet glide effortlessly from circus music to lounge, dirge to Latin dance – sometimes, dizzyingly, all in the one track – with a selection of themes and medleys cleverly interwoven to revisit motifs as a composer might do in a single film score.

Aside from the crisp ensemble work, Galliano’s instrument and its rich sound palette are most engaging when his stylish, virtuosic improvisations are allowed to soar (The Godfather love song with double bass accompaniment) and in the eerie, avant-garde introduction to Giulietta Degli Spiriti.

Opens August 3 Genre Comedy/road movie Duration 120 minutes Despite an erratic track record, the director Michael Winterbottom has deservedly earned the respect of most observers of the British film scene. Over two decades he’s established himself as the UK’s most prolific filmmaker, making his films quickly and efficiently on relatively low budgets that make it easier to get the freedom to take creative risks. That said, to mention Winterbottom as a leading European auteur in the same breath as, say, his compatriots Mike Leigh or Ken Loach, is hard, since the themes, stories and genres he tackles follow no obvious patterns while his directorial style changes wildly from project to project according to the needs of the material. No wonder, then, that the results also vary, from the artistic successes like 24 Hour Party People, Wonderland and Genova to failed experiments such as 9 Songs and Tristram Shandy: A Cock and Bull Story, the latter a bold but largely unsuccessful attempt at adapting Laurence Sterne’s unfilmable novel. That film’s chief legacy remains the first screen pairing of its stars, Steve Coogan and Rob Bryden, as a thrusting and parrying comedy double act. Their obvious chemistry went on to find…